Strength of the Sage
by Rinnseigan
Summary: Sasuke wasn't the only one to uncover a kekkei genkai on team seven's mission to the land of the waves. Seeing his best friend and teammate on the brink of death pushes Naruto to unlock an ability inherited from his mother that is rarely seen among the Uzumaki.
1. Chapter 1

Strength of the Sage

Chapter 1

Summary: Sasuke wasn't the only one to uncover a kekkei genkai on team seven's mission to the land of the waves. Seeing his best friend and teammate on the brink of death die pushes Naruto to unlock an ability inherited from his mother that is rarely seen among the Uzumaki.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto tried his best not to show fear while trapped in the dome of ice mirrors. He could tell that Sasuke was thinking along the same lines, hiding his fear from shinobi that had them both at odds.

"Again Naruto" Sasuke shouted. Naruto quickly followed suit creating a dozen clones to rush the perimeter where they would be free. Barely an instant passed when they all disappeared with a pop, a look of bafflement once more plastered on Naruto's face.

'How is this even possible.' Naruto thought to himself. Him and Sasuke, who he would begrudgingly admit was quite a tough opponent, were completely outclassed by this shinobi, and he was not that much older than they were. 'If I get out of this alive, I need to get my ass into gear.'

Sasuke on the other hand was not thinking of the future, but his head was wrapped around their situation in the present. "Try it again. I think I can get him this time." Sasuke announced to his teammate who immediately responded to the request with a platoon of clones bursting out of the smoke.

'There he is." Sasuke thought before he blew a fireball at the offending shinobi, predicting where he would move.

Sasuke's eyes followed the fireball and watched as it glazed the side of the shinobi that he was trying to incapacitate. For an instant he thought it might have worked before the masked nin once more appeared in all of the mirrors.

"Damn it Sasuke this isn't working!" Naruto shouted as he held his left arm, which was bleeding now at an alarming rate.

"Don't die on me now dobe. I almost got him that time. One more time and I think I can put him down." Sasuke responded.

"If you say so teme." Naruto said as he noticed the scorched cloak Haku was wearing. Naruto had a newfound determination in his voice seeing that there was hope to get out of this yet.

Haku on the other hand was starting to sweat.

'That black haired boy can follow my movements even when I'm moving at this speed. I have to end this now before he pulls out another surprise. I won't let Zabuza-sama down.' Haku thought before emerging from the ice mirror once more at top speed.

Sasuke watched as the masked nin rushed towards Naruto, senbon in hand, his eyes and mind processing the fact that the enemy was moving in for a finishing blow at unprecedented speeds. Before he even had time to think about it, Sasuke grabbed his teammate by the collar of his jacket and pulled himself in front of Naruto.

In an instant it was over, Sasuke's body going numb and rapidly losing the strength to hold himself up due to the needles sticking out of his neck and joints.

Naruto rushed to catch his teammate, not sure what he just saw and experienced. Sasuke, his once sworn enemy had pulled him out of the way and sacrificed himself in order to save him.

"Why did you save me teme?" Naruto asked, his voice slightly wavering as he could feel his teammate's body giving out.

"I don't know. My body moved on its own." Sasuke responded before going completely limp and falling facedown onto the bridge.

"SASUKE" Naruto shouted as he shook the raven haired teen, hoping for any sign of response. Naruto's eyes began to tear up as he continued shaking. "SASUKE, DON'T MESS WITH ME. SASUKE!"

Haku watched from a distance, feeling a tinge of pity for the blonde. When Haku met Naruto, he seemed so happy, so harmless, and she never wanted to hurt the boy who acted kindly to her despite being a stranger, but there was nothing Haku wouldn't do for her master. Nothing. Zabuza had told her to take care of the genin, so that is exactly what she planned on doing. She wouldn't kill the boys because Zabuza hadn't asked her to, but she couldn't let them interfere with her master's fight.

Naruto suddenly stopped shaking the limp body of his comrade and turned to face Haku, his eyes no longer showing any signs of sadness. Instead, his eyes turned a blood red color, filled with rage and hate.

The air around him started spinning as if her were at the center of his own little tornado, although the pressure from the air around him was akin to that of a black hole, sucking the breath out of Haku's lungs even from several meters away.

'What the hell is this kid.' thought Haku as the aura surrounding Naruto began to solidify into storm of visible red chakra, lashing out wildly every couple of moments as if it were trying to show how uncontrollable it was.

After a couple excruciatingly suspenseful seconds passed the aura started to resemble that of a fox, and for an instant it was calm before the blonde boy spoke.

"I'm gonna kill you." The genin growled threateningly before the unexpected happened.

The monstrous red chakra was within seconds overshadowed by numerous gold chains that erupted from all over Naruto's body, effortlessly smashing the surrounding ice mirrors, including the one that Haku had just decided to take cover in.

The girl dressed in green was thrown out of the mirror with tremendous force landing in a heap on the bridge.

'I have to stop this kid, for Zabuza-sama's sake.' Haku thought desperately as she started weaving hand seals as fast as she possibly could. She only got about three seals in before a chain wrapped around her ankle and picked her up, only to smash her right back into the bridge.

That wasn't all though. Naruto had not moved from his position next to Sasuke's limp body, the chains doing all of the work for him. By the third time Haku was smashed into the bridge, she had already lost consciousness, but Naruto had neither the will, nor the self control to stop his assault on the enemy.

He continued to do this for an unprecedented amount of time before he stopped without warning.

Naruto didn't even spare the battered body of Haku a glance before he descended onto all fours and searched his surroundings for his other enemy, Zabuza. Naruto quickly deduced where he was through the fog and like a predator took off to deal with the man that had caused him and his team so much grief. Haku, still tethered to Naruto through the chain was dragged behind the boy like a rag doll as he approached his new prey.

o.o.o

Kakashi was nervous. As soon as he felt the oppressive presence on the bridge he recognised it. He could never forget what the chakra of the kyuubi felt like. The fear that he felt that day twelve years ago returned multiple times over as he imagined Naruto being corrupted by the chakra locked inside of him.

Kakashi took it upon himself to protect the legacy and the son of Minato-sensei, and now, both of those were in danger of being lost at once.

"Wh-What is that?" Zabuza asked in awe of the power he felt. The only time he felt anything comparable to this was when his childhood friend, Yagura had used the chakra of his bijuu, the Sanbi.

Kakashi made some distance from Zabuza and decided to play this to his advantage as much as he could.

"This is why your little companion never had a chance. Sasuke is an Uchiha, and so he could probably defeat the kid on his own, but Naruto…" he said, adding a chuckle to make Zabuza feel all the more intimidated, "Naruto has this."

Zabuza could feel the air getting thicker, and he knew in his heart that Haku stood no chance against this kind of monster. "N-n-no. That shouldn't be possible." He ran through all the bijuu and jinchuuriki in his head. "The kyuubi?" Zabuza asked in a half fearful, half inquisitive tone. It had to be a bijuu. There was no technique that could allow a shinobi exude this much power, genin or otherwise. This chakra had to be coming from a bijuu.

"I see you've deduced that much." Kakashi said, mustering up as much false confidence in his voice as he possibly could as his mind moved at light speed trying to think of ways he could get his team out of this mess safely.

Before he could think of any reasonable solutions a red streak appeared before him, one that his eyes could only follow due to his uncovered sharingan. As he took a closer look, Kakashi noticed the kunoichi chained behind the feral looking Naruto that did not appear to be in good shape at all.

'Is that Kushina-san's technique?" Kakashi thought in awe, while trying to wrap his head around the entire situation.

"N-Naruto. Are you okay?" Kakashi asked his student, hoping that he would somehow react to his voice, but to no avail.

"ZABUZA" Naruto growled/yelled looking at the jonin who was already quite immobile due to his drawn out battle with Kakashi. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT" he roared.

"I'm just doing my job brat." Zabuza responded, doing his best to keep his voice level.

"I DON'T CARE" Naruto yelled as he braced his claws and fangs and began to slowly make his way towards the enemy nuke-nin. Naruto's feral personality was determined to drag this out and make the man suffer for Sasuke's demise.

He approached step by step as Zabuza stood there, more or less defenseless due to all the wounds he had already collected on the day.

"Naruto don't do this. You don't have to take his life. You're too young." Kakashi called out, trying to reason with the boy.

No change in demeanor, Naruto kept approaching.

"Naruto please." Kakashi tried to beg again, but once more the boy ignored him.

"H-He's still alive."

Naruto stopped.

"What." The word came out almost indistinguishable from a growl.

"Your friend, he's still alive." Haku once more stated, not having enough energy to pick herself up from the ground.

"He's not my friend." Naruto whispered, to noone but himself.

"That's it Naruto, calm down." Kakashi tried to sooth as he cautiously approached his student.

"He's alive." Haku said one last time before she passed out into the realm of unconsciousness.

"You hear that Naruto. Sasuke's going to be fine. Just don't do anything rash." Kakashi said.

In a quick instant, another chain erupted from naruto's arm, quickly tightening to an uncomfortable level around Zabuza's chest.

"If your friend is lying, you both die." Naruto growled, albeit a bit calmer as he dragged the two shinobi behind him toward his fallen comrade.

o.o.o

Sakura could barely hold her breakfast in due to the oppressive power she felt spike up moments ago.

What made the fear and the anxiety of waiting worse was that the mist prevented her from seeing anything. She had no idea where Kakashi and Zabuza were, and she also didn't know where Sasuke and that shinobi were fighting.

To add icing to the cake, she also finally made the realization that if Zabuza got past Kakashi, or his nuke-nin pal got past Sasuke, she would stand absolutely no chance in preventing them from killing Tazuna or herself.

While waiting in her combination of self pity and fear, Sakura started to notice the mist rising and blowing away.

'Maybe now I'll be able to find Sasuke-kun and see if he's okay.' Sakura thought, a glint of cheer shining through her somber mood as the mist continued to clear up.

After a couple seconds she could notice a figure, or two making their way across the bridge.

'I-Is that Naruto?' She thought as she tried to recognise the figures.

She could see Naruto walking toward her, although he looked a little … well … menacing, with Kakashi by his side.

And then she caught a glimpse of a body Kakashi was carrying. Sasuke's body.

Tears started welling in her eyes. "Oh please no. Not Sasuke-kun." She muttered under her breath, barely audible.

She didn't even notice the two bodies being dragged behind Naruto before she burst into an uncontrollable bout of tears and sobs.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Chapter 1 done.

Please Review, Favorite, Follow, Review again, and feel free to message me.

REVIEWS MOTIVATE MY WRITING LIBIDO. So do follows and favorites. BUT MOSTLY REVIEWS.

Please give me any criticism or praise you have for my story. It's just a baby now but soon it will grow in length.

Let me know if you like the length of the chapter or if you want it longer. I don't really think I'll ne writing any chapters shorter than this one ever.

I currently have three different stories planned out start to finish but I decided to atleast get started on this one and make decent progress here before I even think of putting another one of my ideas on paper. I have the plot for this one planned for much after the timeskip, and I don't expect to be wavering from that plan for the most part, although I do always love additional ideas and advice for my writing.

I plan on making this story quite long as it is not a oneshot, but will progress somewhat similarly to the canon timeline (although the plot will not be canon from chapter 1 onwards).

DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW.

Dattebayo.


	2. Chapter 2

Strength of the Sage

Chapter 2

Summary: Sasuke wasn't the only one to uncover a kekkei genkai on team seven's mission to the land of the waves. Seeing his best friend and teammate on the brink of death die pushes Naruto to unlock an ability inherited from his mother that is rarely seen among the Uzumaki.

o.o.o.o.o

Kakashi placed Sasuke down next to Sakura, who was still desperately weeping and checked his pulse once more.

'Still somewhat faint, but it's distinct enough that it isn't a matter of life and death anymore.' Kakashi deduced. "Sasuke's going to be fine." He said, gently placing the boy's head down on the wooden bridge.

Immediately as he spoke those words the atmosphere lightened up tenfold, and Kakashi knew he could credit that to Naruto calming down from his previous rage.

Sakura's sobbing took a pause, although tears continued to stream down her face, as she released a sigh of relief and hugged her crush. "Oh thank you, thank you Kakashi-sensei for saving him!" Sakura praised based on her assumption that Kakashi had been the one to somehow rescue Sasuke.

"Well actually I had nothing to do with it." Kakashi said subtly before redirecting his attention to his blonde student, "Naruto is the one you should be thanking if anything, although I don't even know exactly what happened as of right now either."

Sakura tried to hide her surprise but it wasn't to be, "Naruto? You're kidding right?"

"Hey! I did save teme's ass, and for your information I beat both of these guys right here too." Naruto boasted, gesturing to the two chained up former mist shinobi behind him.

"Kid I'll slice you to pieces as soon as I get out of this." Zabuza shouted from his position, still exuding some killing intent, although much less effective now that he was chained up.

Sakura only then took notice of the chains that were quite literally sprouting from Naruto's arms.

"N-naruto… what are those?"

Naruto shot her a questioning glance before realizing that she was talking about the chains.

"Oh, these? I don't really know. But they're awesome right! The Sasuke-teme is going to be so jealous when I show him." Naruto responded, glowing with pride.

"Hmph. Whatever. Sasuke-kun is still so much cooler than you!" she said swooning over the boy.

"Aww" Naruto cried with mock tears. "I save the day and he's still cooler. You're just biased against awesome. Yeah, that has to be it."

o.o.o

Naruto's self-glorifying thoughts were cut short though when Kakashi tapped him on his shoulder and pointed to the end of the bridge. There Naruto could see almost a hundred thugs gathered behind a short man with brown hair and small black glasses.

"So, the dreaded demon of the mist couldn't even take care of a measly team of Konoha shinobi. How pathetic!" The man shouted.

"Gato." Zabuza whispered under his breath before shouting to his employer, "What are you doing here Gato, with all these scum."

The man took a few steps forward before replying. "Well you see, hiring a missing nin is pretty expensive, so I brought out a few of my friends here to take care of that problem. See I was never going to pay you Zabuza. Haha." He laughed assuming his victory was assured.

"Bastard." Zabuza swore before looking up to Kakashi to see how he would proceed.

Kakashi noticed this and quickly came to a conclusion.

"Naruto, unchain them and I'll tie them up quickly. They're in no shape to run or fight right now and we have bigger problems." Kakashi addressed his blonde student about his captives.

Naruto adopted his smiling demeanor and let out a nervous chuckle before reaching up and putting both hands behind his head, "Well, see… the thing is Kakashi-sensei… umm… "

"Come on Naruto spit it out. We don't have a lot of time here." Kakashi said with an intense glare at how casual his student was acting.

"Well, I don't exactly know how."

Kakashi and Sakura sweatdropped. For a brief moment they had forgotten just exactly how incompetent Naruto had been up to this point in his shinobi career.

"Sakura, grab a kunai. Anyone that gets past me is your responsibility. Remember the mission is to protect Tazuna." Kakashi said before he pulled out two kunai of his own.

Sakura nodded grimly and took up a defensive stance with a metal kunai in her right hand.

"What about me Kakashi-sensei? What should I do to help?" Naruto asked his leader excited to be a part of their grand victory.

"Right now there's not much you can do. Just stay away from the fighting Naruto." He said before rushing in to engage the enemy.

o.o.o

The thugs disappeared as quickly as they had arrived. To Kakashi they were all cannon fodder. It took less than thirty seconds of brawling for Kakashi to finally make his way to where Gato was hiding and put an end to his miserable existence.

The men Gato had hired were quickly losing hope or reason to fight, so as soon as Inari had appeared with a mob of angry villagers holding pitchforks and torches, they abandoned their task at hand and quickly fled.

Kakashi had plenty of work to do involving the aftermath of the mission and the fiasco that ensued, but he allowed his genin to rest.

Sasuke had briefly regained consciousness after only a few hours, and despite being sore all over his body, was doing surprisingly well. When Kakashi told him to stay in bed for the remainder of the day and to take it easy for the rest of the mission, Sasuke didn't argue, knowing that he had to recover fully before he could restart his training.

Sakura despite not doing anything physically taxing, was emotionally exhausted, and refused to leave her 'Sasuke-kun' alone. She took up the bed next to his, constantly checking up on him to make sure he was still alive and doing well.

Naruto was the hardest to deal with because of everything that happened at the bridge. The mere fact that Naruto was able to use the Kyuubi's chakra, even if it was just a response to his emotional state, was somewhat troubling for Kakashi.

After Naruto finally figured out how to release Zabuza and and his partner, Haku, who Naruto had actually already met, Kakashi made sure that Naruto didn't exert himself anymore.

As Kakashi thought back, he couldn't remember a single time that Kushina had used any bijuu chakra around him so Kakashi didn't want to risk the fact that there might be downsides or bad side effects to using it that he himself didn't know about.

o.o.o

Naruto woke up after several long and restful hours of sleep noticing that it was still dark outside. Not willing to go back to sleep Naruto decided to sneak out of the house as not to wake anyone.

Naruto quickly escaped the confined room before climbing up onto the roof of Tazuna's house and staring up at the stars.

The blonde boy sighed and thought back over the last twenty four hours. He had participated in his first real shinobi battle, the previous fight with Zabuza not really counting due to the fact that all he did then was sit on the sidelines. At one point he did throw a kunai that helped release his sensei from a water prison, but that wasn't real fighting.

Today he had actually fought, and he had actually faced the possibility of death, and it was not as much fun as his childhood imagination made it out to be.

In addition to that he had seen Kakashi kill countless criminals without batting an eye.

Kill was not even the word Naruto would use to describe it. Kakashi had slain those men, because they stood absolutely no chance of fighting back.

The shinobi world was brutal like that, and everything Naruto had dreamed about as a child was now upside down.

That scared him.

Despite these realizations, the single biggest worry on Naruto's mind was the massive chakra he had somehow tapped into when he saw Sasuke die.

The kyuubi, the monster that presumably killed his parents in the attack and left him orphaned was what had saved him earlier today.

When using that chakra, Naruto was able to unlock some form of kekkei genkai that allowed him to create chains from his chakra, which was badass.

Unfortunately that's not all the chakra did. It made him want to kill. He wanted to kill and nothing more. Naruto had fought every ounce of instinct in his body to not kill Zabuza and Haku immediately. He even had the urge to kill his own team at the time, which was just unthinkable in Naruto's mind.

Naruto let out a sigh and let his thoughts cloud his mind.

'Cough' "Ahem, Naruto."

Naruto opened his eyes to see his silver haired sensei standing over him.

"Oh, Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing up?" Naruto asked the man, confused on why he wasn't in the house sleeping like the rest of the team.

"Well after I left you three at the house yesterday, I had to clean up the entire mess that Gato left us so I've been around handling that." Kakashi responded.

"Really like what?"

"Well I had to seal up Zabuza and that Haku girl's chakra and make sure they didn't somehow escape." Kakashi started to which Naruto raised his eyebrow.

"Sensei… Haku's a boy." Naruto said with a frown.

The visible portion of Kakashi's face immediately turned pink as he avoided looking Naruto in the eye, "No she's not…" he replied trying to maintain a stoic demeanor.

Naruto grunted in annoyance, "Pervert."

"Anyways, after I got that done I had to send word to Sandaime-sama about what had happened, and that he should notify the local bounty officials that we have Zabuza and Haku in custody."

Naruto shot up to protest, "What do you mean!? We're just gonna give them away to be killed?" Naruto said in a hushed voice, still aware of the fact that people were sleeping right under the roof they were on.

"Sit down Naruto" Kakashi scolded sternly, "That's not up to you. I'm the mission leader so any missing-nin that we come across on the mission are my responsibility. Besides, not too long ago they were trying to kill us Naruto."

"Yeah, yeah, but they didn't did they."

"Not the point Naruto."

"Whatever sensei."

"Well after that I took the mayor of the village along with a few volunteers down to Gato's hideout and we spent the last six hours finding the leftover wealth and deciding how to redistribute it to the people it was stolen from."

"Wow, you've been through a lot today sensei, you should probably get some sleep."

"Meh yeah I've been through a lot today, but I'm not the one that tapped into the strongest chakra source known to mankind." Kakashi noted, using it as a segway to the conversation he wanted to have with his student.

Naruto stirred in his position, his body language clearly showing that he was not comfortable facing the reality of that situation just yet.

"You want to talk about it?"

o.o.o

By the time Kakashi and Naruto had finished discussing his situation, it was already light out, and Tsunami was slaving away in the kitchen making breakfast.

Naruto and Kakashi both entered the house through the door in the kitchen startling Tsunami.

"Oh dear!" She jumped before quickly regaining her composure, "Good morning. Breakfast will be ready in a bit." She said with a smile.

A tired looking Kakashi didn't even bother responding. He just waved her off and walked up the stairs in the house to get to his bed.

Tsunami sent Naruto a questioning look as if to say 'what's his problem today'.

"Oh don't worry about sensei, he's just tired because he was out all night." Naruto said.

"That's all right, more for you young ones then I guess." She said, brushing off Kakashi's impassive behavior.

"What's for breakfast today Tsunami-chan?" Naruto asked politely, his question accentuated by his stomach growling seconds later.

"I'm making scrambled eggs and toast. I hope that's okay."

"Well, it's not ramen but I guess I can live with it." Naruto said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Baka! Say thank you instead of being all ungrateful!" Sakura's high pitched voice scolded as she descended the stairs followed by a disheveled looking Sasuke.

The black haired teen looked Naruto in the eye, and he gave a small, unassuming nod to his teammate as if he were acknowledging his for the first time.

"Teme."

"Dobe."

"Good to see you alive."

"Ditto." Sasuke replied before taking a seat at the kitchen table.

Sakura quickly rushed to take the seat next to her crush, an old habit that she had developed in the academy when competing with her classmates for who got to sit next to Sasuke-kun.

"Now that you're all here, breakfast is served." Tsunami enthusiastically stated as she set down the skillet of eggs in front of the three genin.

"Thank you Tsunami-san!"

"Yeah! Thanks a bunch!"

"Hn"

o.o.o

The following days passed quickly with little excitement seeing as there was no longer any threat to Tazuna's life.

Most of the workers for the bridge that had quit in the past came back to help Tazuna finish it free of charge. They were all happy to be once more working on such a good cause.

Kakashi had even allowed Naruto to help under the condition that he didn't use any chakra or shadow clones while he was working.

With the overwhelming support from the community on the project, the bridge was built in less than a third of the time it was planned to,

Therefore what was supposed to be two weeks of guard duty for team seven ended being only four days on the job for the Konoha shinobi. And just like that it was already time to go.

The four Konoha shinobi, along with their two captives stood on the bridge that had just been completed to say their goodbyes to everyone they had met on their mission.

"We could never have finished the bridge without you. I can't tell you how grateful we are." Tazuna said addressing the team he had hired.

"Take care everyone." Tsunami added on to her father's words.

"Thank you for everything."

"Good luck with the village. If you ever need anything, you will have friends in Konoha that can help." Kakashi diplomatically added his two cents.

Off the the side Naruto was saying goodbye to Inari, doing his best not to break down crying at leaving the boy who he had come to know as a friend.

And with that, they turned around to cross the bridge and head back to Konoha.

Tazuna then turned to his daughter and to the people of the village, "You know, that one kid did this. He basically forced his team to help me out when they had no responsibility to, he inspired Inari to fight, who in turn got the village to stand up for itself, and he was the one who ended up beating both of those shinobi that were hired by Gato."

Tsunami looked fondly at the figures as they walked away.

"You're right. That boy is something special." She said as she turned to her father, "So, we need a name for the bridge?"

"How about 'The Great Naruto Bridge'?" Tazuna suggested, looking to the townsfolk for their response.

A chorus of approvals could be heard from the crowd in front of the bridge builder.

"Then we have a name!" He exclaimed.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Chapter 2 done.

Please Review, Favorite, Follow, Review again, and feel free to message me.

REVIEWS MOTIVATE ME. So do follows and favorites. BUT MOSTLY REVIEWS.

About the chapter, it's about 500 words longer than the previous one which is a trend that will continue for some time. I have written chapters of up to 10,000 words in a day before, but it actually takes so much work and at that point you are forcing it. I want to enjoy writing this and I also want to update at least once a week until completion (Which will be a long time from now) and I don't see how I would be able to do that with chapters that are any longer than 10,000 words at most.

For now though I will be working my way up in word count until I hit a number I am comfortable with. I will do my best to write as much as I can while still posting every week.

I am going to need a beta reader soon. I need to find out how to use beta readers through in the first place so if anyone knows how I can do that please send me a message. Or better yet, let me know how in a review :)))

This chapter was basically only here to wrap up what happened in the land of the waves, nothing too interesting, but it was nevertheless fun to write.

Next Chapter will be the return to Konoha along with some other short parts.

After that, my own storyline will kick off. I hope yall will like it.

DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW.

Dattebayo.


	3. Chapter 3

Strength of the Sage

Chapter 3

Summary: Sasuke wasn't the only one to uncover a kekkei genkai on team seven's mission to the land of the waves. Seeing his best friend and teammate on the brink of death die pushes Naruto to unlock an ability inherited from his mother that is rarely seen among the Uzumaki.

o.o.o.o.o

(With team seven in Nami no Kuni)

"What is taking so long? Why aren't we in Konoha yet?" Naruto shouted to nobody in particular, as he followed the trail leading to konoha.

"You weren't this annoyed on the way there." Kakashi pointed out to his student, not bothering to look up from his book.

"On the way there we were on an escort mission. Now we're just walking on a trail. Boring."

"In that case don't think of this as walking. Do some training. I happen to know of a genin that could make the entire trip back to Konoha walking back on his hands." Kakashi replied, thinking of Gai's student who had truly grown strong over the past year of the jonin's tutelage.

"That's ridiculous Kakashi-sensei. Don't mock my boredom."

Kakashi smirked under his mask 'Oh you'll find out soon enough.'

"Dobe, how about you show us that kekkei genkai you've been bragging about for the past week." Sasuke interrupted, seriously curious about the ability that had apparently finished off and captured their opponents so spectacularly.

"Uhhh, well..." Naruto started to reply. Truth be told, he didn't really know if he could replicate what had happened on the bridge. Obviously it wasn't something that he knew about before the incident on the bridge so Naruto never really figured out how to create the chains.

"Yeah Naruto. I didn't even get to see you use it the first time. I want to see too!" Sakura chimed in.

Kakashi didn't say anything but he was watching closely. He wanted to know exactly how well Kushina's ability manifested in her son.

"Wait!" Zabuza shouted from his position tied up in the back of the group, "You're saying that the time on the bridge was the first time the brat ever used those damned chains?"

"Haha." Naruto chuckled once more placing his hands behind the back of his head, "Still beat you didn't I!"

Zabuza simply growled at this. He would never admit to getting beaten by a fresh genin. If he hadn't been beaten and rugged from fighting Kakashi, then there was no way the brat would have gotten the drop on him.

"Gaki I can think of at least ten ways to kill you without my chakra or my hands so I wouldn't go about pissing me off."

Haku remained silent and observed the blond. This boy wasn't anything like the monster she had fought on the bridge. He was carefree, and happy, and optimistic, exactly how he had been in the woods the first time they met.

Naruto stuck out his tongue at the ex kiri shinobi and ran up ahead of the group to try and conjure his ability.

"Sasuke watch and learn!" Naruto shouted as he began channeling his chakra.

The blond stuck out his arm pointing at a tree with his palm facing outward.

'Come on come on come on. I can do this!' Naruto thought as he gritted his teeth. He had absolutely no idea how he made the chains appear the first time. He was for the most part under the kyuubi's influence so everything he did was based only on instinct.

After a few moments, the aura around Naruto's left arm began to glow blue.

Zabuza watched in silence. He knew that this wasn't demonic chakra because of his childhood relationship with Yagura.

'Damn, even without the kyuubi this kid has enough chakra that when he channels it, it becomes visible.'

Kakashi was also more than impressed at seeing the amount of chakra Naruto was able to channel, but he knew that this wasn't the way to manifest the adamantine sealing chains. Kushina never had to channel this much chakra to use her ability. In fact, Kakashi couldn't think of a single kekkei genkai that would respond if simply overloaded with chakra.

"Naruto, don't over think this. A kekkei genkai comes naturally, almost instinctively. The more you try to force it out, the more your body won't listen."

"If you say so kakashi-sensei." Naruto responded and the aura surrounding his arm faded.

Naruto closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and once more channeled chakra to his palm, this time not trying to force it out, but searching for the feeling he got on the bridge earlier that week.

He felt his arm weigh down as the chakra exited his palm bit by bit.

Naruto heard a gasp and opened his eyes to see the entire group had stopped, eyes on him.

"Well I guess he's not totally useless." Zabuza stated casually.

Naruto was happy to see about 6 feet of golden chain hanging from his palm with a kunai at the end. His goal was to hit the tree with the kekkei genkai, similar to how he shattered Haku's mirrors, but at this point he didn't really care. He was just glad that he could make the chains appear.

"Hn" Sasuke grunted string to walk again. He had done his best not to look impressed but his mind was racing after seeing what Naruto could do.

With this ability Naruto had somehow managed to defeat Haku, who seemed unbeatable at the time, and capture Zabuza. Something didn't add up. Naruto could barely make the chains now, and they didn't seem all that threatening in the hands of the dobe. How was it possible that he had beaten Haku back with an ability that he could barely even control now.

Sasuke was deep in thought pondering what exactly was the secret to Naruto's success.

Naruto on the other hand was extremely excited.

"I wonder what this puppy can do." Naruto exclaimed as he started swinging the chain around.

"We've still got quite a few hours till we get back to Konoha, so don't tire yourself out." Kakashi advised before he flipped the page in his Icha Icha book, releasing yet another perverted giggle.

o.o.o

(7 hours later)

Naruto had spent the entirety of the trip testing out his ability. Anything and everything that came to mind, he would do without thinking twice.

After everything he had done on the way back, Naruto had learned quite a lot. He had figured out how to create the chains and retract them without too much effort, although the ability was far from battle ready.

After hours of swinging from the chains and whipping them at whatever he could find, Naruto also came to the conclusion that they were very nearly indestructible, at least with any reasonable load.

On the third hour Sasuke had taken Kubikiri Houcho, much to Zabuza's chagrin, and swung it with all the strength he could muster at the chain extending from Naruto's left arm to find not single notch on the golden links.

Apparently you can't dent chakra. Who would have guessed.

After a few more hours of experimenting, Naruto also figured out that he could use chains from almost all of his tenketsu, but he could only consistently summon them or even remotely control them when they came from his palms.

Kakashi had explained that most shinobi had the best control of their chakra in their palms, and far worse control basically everywhere else on their bodies. The only exception to this was a shinobi's feet which utilized chakra control for walking on walls or water.

By the time the front gate of Konoha came into view, Naruto had exhausted all possibilities of experimentation when it came to his chains, and he was more than happy with the results.

"No way I'm ever losing to the teme again. These are awesome!" Naruto boasted as he retracted a chain back into both of his palms.

"Hn. You're not the only one with a new kekkei genkai. Or did you forget that we haven't fought since I unlocked my sharingan." Sasuke responded, not to be outdone by his rival.

Naruto simply stuck his tongue out in reply.

"A dobe will always be a dobe." Sasuke stated shaking his head at his teammate's antics.

The group of six walked up to the gates as a pair of shinobi with chunin flak jackets stopped them in their tracks.

"Ah, Izumo, Kotetsu. Team seven reporting back from a c-rank escort mission." Kakashi stepping in front of the group to greet the guards.

The two chunin nodded and let them through, although both raised eyebrows at seeing Zabuza Momoichi, along with a kunoichi dressed as a hunter nin tied up and trailing behind the genin squad.

Kotetsu looked to his partner, "I wonder what went down on that mission."

Izumo shrugged, "Yeah, a genin team on a c-rank mission up against the demon of the mist. That had to be tough on them. I'm surprised they all made it back alive honestly."

"It's times like these that I'm so glad to be assigned gate duty." Kotetsu said as he leaned back in his seat.

"You said it man."

o.o.o

"Listen up team seven. I have to take these two back to the Ibiki for now." Kakashi said, gesturing to the two missing nin, still tied up and sealed behind him. "You three will have to submit mission reports, but given the circumstances of what we went through, You don't have to submit it right away. Tomorrow we'll meet at the Hokage tower at 10:00 am and we can all turn in our reports then. Until then you're dismissed. Go rest." Kakashi ordered.

"Hai sensei." All three responded as Kakashi started making his way to the tower with his two captives.

"So Sasuke-kun, you want to go get some food and get our reports done together?" Sakura innocently asked her crush.

Sasuke didn't even grace her with a reply, instead turning around silently and walking home.

"Sakura-chan I'll go with you— "

"Don't even think about it." Sakura cut him off as she turned away and stomped home, annoyed that she was once more blown off by Sasuke.

"More for me then. OH SWEET RAMEN I'M COMING FOR YOU!" Naruto wildly called out as he ran toward his favorite ramen stand, excited to once more taste the food of the gods.

o.o.o

Naruto stood in the Hokage's office with his two teammates by his side, all three of them intently focused to see how the man would respond to what occurred on their mission.

'Damn paperwork. I'm going to have to fill out so many forms for this mission.' Hiruzen internally sobbed as he finished looking over the last report.

"I know all three of you may have be a little shaken up after that mission, but based on what Kakashi explained yesterday and these reports I can safely say that all three of you performed admirably and should be quite proud of yourselves." The aged Hokage said to the team, each of which allowed a smile to crawl onto their faces for being commended by the 'god of shinobi'.

"Aww it was no problem jiji. Give us a harder one next time because that was a walk in the park." Naruto confidently stated before Sakura discreetly punched him in the side.

"I will take that into consideration, but I'm going to give team seven a couple days off from any missions, d-ranks included, so you all can rest up and recover from what sounds like an exhausting escort mission."

"B-b-but jiji. I need to make rent!" Naruto said in a panic. After all the boy could not afford to be evicted from his own home. Kami knows that his landlord would get unreasonably angry at him with every chance he got so it would do no good to give the man a reason for eviction.

"Not to worry Naruto-kun. I have right here your pay from the last mission. It was bumped up to A-rank, so you'll find that it is sizably more than expected." Hiruzen replied.

The veteran Sarutobi handed out a check to each genin and was pleased to see all three of them beaming due to the amount of money they received.

"DATTEBAYO! I can afford a year of high end ramen on this!" Naruto exclaimed a distant look already forming in his eyes.

"Do you think about anything other than ramen?" Sakura asked the blond, honestly wondering if his brain ever moved on from the subject of his favorite dish.

"The dobe doesn't even think." Sasuke smugly replied to Sakura's question.

"Teme do you need a beating?"

"Settle down now." Hiruzen said to the young shinobi before him. "Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke, you're dismissed. Kakashi-san, stay back a second. I need to discuss something with you." The Hokage commanded.

Before the three genin left the room Kakashi turned to them and spoke up.

"Meet me at the training ground in an hour. We may not be doing missions, but that doesn't exempt you from training."

"Hai Kakashi-sensei."

"Hn."

Team seven walked out of the Hokage's office and as soon as the door was shut, Hiruzen turned to Kakashi and cut to the chase.

"So, the kyuubi?"

"Yeah..."

"And Kushina's kekkei genkai?"

"Yup."

The old Sarutobi reached into his cabinet and pulled out his supply of booze.

"I'm gonna need a drink."

"Pour me one too while you're at it."

o.o.o

"Kakashi-sensei's probably telling jiji that I should be promoted straight to jonin for kicking major ass, Dattebayo!" Naruto said as the team waited for their sensei, hiding from the sun in the shade of a tree.

"Baka, he just had to give his more detailed report since he's the jonin and we're all genin. Besides, you would be dead if Sasuke-kun didn't save you first. If anyone deserves a promotion from that mission, it's Sasuke." Sakura corrected and scolded.

"Hn. And now that I have these eyes," Sasuke paused and activated his two tomoe sharingan, "I can wipe the floor with you any day of the week."

"Oh yeah teme? Let's go right now!" Naruto shouted, fed up with the boasting of his nemesis. No matter how much Naruto had matured over the course of the mission, he was still nowhere near the point that he would let Sasuke declare his supremacy without giving him a fight for the spot.

"Shut up dobe. I'm not going to fight you. There's no point." Sasuke replied in his condescending tone.

"Yeah because it's not like you stood a chance in the first place!"

"I'm the rookie of the year. You're the dead last. After all that training under Kakashi you still can't touch me."

"You tell him Sasuke-kun." Sakura cheered.

There was a swift breeze of wind and a slight swirl of leaves when Kakashi appeared between the two boys with a 'pop' followed by two other ANBU appearing at his side.

"And here I thought we were doing so well in the teamwork department." Kakashi said, looking back and forth between his feuding students.

"Kakashi-sensei! You're here! And only fifteen minutes late! What's going on?" Sakura asked.

"Well the Hokage is under some delusion that I'm chronically late, so he thought I should be escorted by ANBU so I wouldn't keep you three waiting."

"And with that, our role here is done sempai" The two ANBU announced before disappearing in another swirl of leaves.

"Gather round my cute little genin." Kakashi said as the three surrounded him. "The hokage has given us three days to recover and train before our next mission so I decided it's about time I taught each of you a new technique."

Naruto immediately jumped in the air, fist pumping.

"YATTA!"

Even Sasuke let out a smirk.

"Unfortunately, Sakura and Naruto are polar opposites. Anything I can teach him, she most likely doesn't have the reserves to do, and anything I can teach her, Naruto won't have the control to do. So I'm going to teach you all something individually."

Kakashi then made the Naruto's favorite handseal.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu" Kakashi muttered as two identical copies of him appeared at his sides.

"Now I won't be teaching you any offensive jutsu. Instead, I will teach all three of you a supplementary technique that suits you personally."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all nodded, understanding the reasoning that Kakashi was putting on the table.

"Sasuke, your fighting style is based mostly on speed and precision, which can be expected because of the abilities of your sharingan. That being said, I know of only two people that could use this technique offensively but I have faith that over time you will develop a similar aptitude. I'm teaching you the Sunshin no jutsu (Body flicker technique)."

Sasuke nodded, "Hn."

It made sense to him. His brother's best friend, Shisui, was actually renowned for using the Body Flicker in combat, and a large reason for why he was capable of using it to such a high degree was the sharingan. Without the higher level of perception given by the sharingan, the Body Flicker would generally cause vertigo and disorientation within the user, which made it poor suited for battle.

It was genuinely a good choice for Sasuke, especially since it was such a common jutsu. It simply fit him well.

"Naruto, your fighting style is based entirely on strength rather than speed, not to mention the fact that without the sharingan you most likely won't be able to manage that speed. Instead I'm going to teach you water-walking because not only is your chakra control horrendous, but this will also help you control that kekkei-genkai of yours. It is the first step in mastering the Adamantine sealing chains."

Naruto frowned. Why couldn't he get a real jutsu. Just some chakra control exercise? That was a bit disappointing, but his sensei obviously knew best.

"And last but not least Sakura. You have prodigious chakra control, so I'm going to teach you the Shosen no jutsu: Mystical Palm Technique. At first it will have barely any impact at all on anything you are trying to heal, but as you practice you will get better and better at it. Lucky for you, you have two overcompetitive hotheaded teammates that will make for great test dummies."

Naruto and Sasuke sweatdropped at hearing this, but didn't argue.

"Hai sensei" Sakura politely responded.

"Alright Sasuke take one clone, Naruto take the other. I'm going with Sakura since I struggle with the Shosen no jutsu as is." Kakashi ordered and the three squads split off.

o.o.o

(With Naruto next to the stream)

'Splash'

"Aghh that's so cold!" Naruto shrieked in surprise as he jumped out of the water.

The Kakashi clone was in the shade, leaning against a tree and looked up from his little orange book. "That's the tenth time you fell in. Why are you surprised every time."

Naruto shot his sensei a glare as he once more placed a foot gingerly on the surface of the water.

Kakashi was impressed.

Naruto was starting to get the hang of water walking very quickly, despite the fact that he started out on moving water rather than still water. Despite everything the Academy instructors said about him, Naruto truly was something else. His work ethic alone was unrivaled in anyone Kakashi had met before, and anything that didn't require a high level of chakra control, Naruto could pick up like no one else. He truly was his father's son.

'Splash'

"Aghh. Not again!"

"Keep at it Naruto. Practice makes perfect." Kakashi encouraged from his position followed by another perverted giggle.

As Naruto pulled himself from the water, he decided that it wasn't even worth his time to glare at Kakashi, because his sensei seemed completely oblivious to Naruto's directed annoyance.

"You might want to take your jumpsuit off and let it dry. Don't want to be making the walk back home dripping wet do yah?" Kakashi offered.

Naruto rolled his eyes at his sensei, who really hadn't been helpful at all other than briefly going over the basics of water walking and giving a short demonstration.

"Great advice sensei." Naruto sarcastically replied, although he did comply and remove his jumpsuit because he was in fact right.

"That's what I'm here for." The clone responded before flipping yet another page in his book.

'Sigh. I'll just prank the hell out of him one of these days. Heheheh.' Naruto concluded to himself before once more approaching the moving water, this time only in his boxer shorts.

Naruto's training went on like this for quite some time, with the Kakashi clone contributing a useless comment every once in awhile.

After a couple more hours of working on water walking the Kakashi clone said that he couldn't offer any more advice (not that he was really contributing before), but to keep working at it until he got tired.

So Naruto kept at it until it got dark, not realizing that his sensei and teammates had most likely called it a day hours ago.

He was annoyed that his sensei, or even his sensei's clone didn't have the will to stick it out with him until late, but he wasn't discouraged.

After a slow start, with every attempt Naruto could manage a little bit longer on the water. At first it was milliseconds. After an hour he could last a couple seconds. By the time Kakashi's clone had left Naruto could manage over a minute. At the end of the day, when calling quits on his training, Naruto had started running laps on the stream with relative ease, although he still had to focus on what he was doing.

As soon as the sun set, Naruto decided he was done for the day. Kakashi-sensei had said to keep working until he was tired, and while he was mentally exhausted from the focus he had to put into the exercise, Naruto wasn't at all physically tired.

The blonde haired boy pulled his jumpsuit off of the branch it was drying on, only to notice that it was still quite wet.

'I guess I'm walking home in my underwear.' Naruto decided as he draped the damp jumpsuit over his shoulder and started making his way towards his apartment.

As he walked Naruto contemplated getting some ramen to go on his way back, but decided against it based on the fact that he was mostly naked, although it truly was a difficult decision to make.

o.o.o

Sakura had finished learning the hand seals to the Shosen no jutsu hours ago, and Kakashi encouraged her to stop her training at three o'clock in order to avoid chakra exhaustion.

She had spent most of the time learning to convert her chakra into medical-ninjutsu chakra, which is a lot more complicated that it seems. Channeling chakra into her hands took some focus in the first place, but then Sakura had to use the exceptional chakra control in her hands in order to mold the chakra properly at the same pace or else the chakra would destabilize.

After Kakashi decided that she could convert the chakra at an acceptable level, he asked his genin kunoichi to maintain the shosen jutsu for as long as she could, which showed just how lacking her reserves were.

Within fifteen minutes, Kakashi found his student sweating, with her hands shaking uncontrollably, and so he decided to call it quits immediately. If Sakura's control wasn't so impressive, Kakashi would find the state of his student quite pitiful. This is because the Shosen no jutsu required such a small amount of chakra when it wasn't being used to actually heal an organism.

Within the next five minutes Sakura had gathered her things and headed home.

o.o.o

Sakura didn't know what happened.

One moment she was making her way home, ready to pass out as soon as she made it to her bed, and the next moment she was being pulled along with Hinata by Ino who was going on about a much needed 'girls night'.

Sakura was for the most part surprised by the fact that she and Ino were even on speaking terms, let alone friendly enough to go out together, but here she was with her two fellow kunoichi.

Ino was pulling the two through the center of Konoha. The streets were lighted by lamps along the sides and were quite crowded with civilians.

"Ino-Ino stop. Where are we even going?" Sakura asked as she managed to release Ino's grasp on her arm.

"Y-y-yeah I-Ino-san. M-my f-f-father doesn't know I l-l-left the cl-clan compound." Hinata shyly added on, fingers pressed together showing how uncomfortable she was.

"Oh lighten up. I just needed some time to talk to someone other than the two idiots on my team. All they do is eat and watch clouds." Ino said. "Besides, it's not like either of you have anything better to do."

"You know, normally I would take offense to that, but I think you might be right." Sakura conceded. She legitimately didn't have anyone to talk to about everything that happened to her since she became a genin. Her parents never understood because they were civilians, Sasuke wouldn't have a real conversation with her, and Naruto... was Naruto. Thinking over the past few weeks Sakura had to admit to herself that so much had happened and changed in her life.

"I'm always right aren't I?" Ino said with a grin as she grabbed the two kunoichi and started pulling them towards their destination once more.

"I-Ino-san you n-never said where we w-were g-going." Hinata repeated, hoping for an answer as she was more or less dragged through a crowd behind her blonde companion.

"Shopping of course." Ino replied with a glint in her eyes, not slowing her pace as she made a turn into one of the clothing shops that caught her eye.

o.o.o

Sakura, Ino, and Hinata walked out of their last store for the day holding countless shopping bags three hours after the start of the affair. Truthfully it was Ino that did about ninety percent of the shopping, while Sakura and Hinata mostly acted as glorified bag carriers.

"Well that was absolutely exhausting. Who knew shopping could tire a girl out like that?" Asked Ino with a grin plastered across her face.

"I did." Sakura deadpanned. And she thought she was tired before they went shopping.

Hinata would have raised her hand to agree with Sakura if it wasn't being weighed down by three bags filled with Ino's clothes and various other trinkets.

"Whatever. I don't know why you didn't buy as much Sakura. Didn't you just get back from a mission. You have a paycheck that you could blow on clothes." Ino suggested.

"Yeah I guess, and I got paid for an A-rank so it's a lot of ryo." Sakura added.

"A-rank. W-why?" Hinata asked, sounding concerned as soon as she heard that the mission was bumped up.

"What even happened on that mission. I've heard some stories, but apparently it's some big deal. Daddy was talking all about it after he came back from the torture and investigation unit yesterday." Said Ino.

Sakura scratched the back of her head, thinking of how exactly she should go about explaining the mission to wave. She definitely didn't want to relive some parts of the mission because those experiences genuinely kept her up at night. The oddest part was that only a little over a month ago, she was sitting in the academy with her classmates discussing Sasuke-kun and their fanclub meetings. Now though, after everything that happened, those days seemed so surreal.

"I mean, it started off normal enough" Sakura began, deciding that she didn't want to go too much into detail about it. "The client was a bridge builder and he lied about the mission when he hired us to escort him. Some huge businessman named Gato wanted him dead so we ended up having to fight a couple missing nin and a guy named Zabuza."

"I-is everybody o-okay?" Hinata asked, still concerned about a certain blonde.

"Well yeah, we all got out of it fine. Sasuke and Naruto both really stepped up during the mission so I think I need to start training a bit more to see if I can catch up to them." Sakura responded, acknowledging to herself that she was just dead weight during the mission.

"N-naruto-kun?" Hinata said with surprise in her voice, happy to hear that Naruto was okay and that he had apparently done well on his mission.

"Nevermind the dead last. Tell me about Sasuke-kun. He probably had to save your sorry butt a hundred times." Ino badgered with hearts in her eyes.

"Well, I still don't really know what happened. Apparently Sasuke managed to awaken his sharingan when we were fighting, and Naruto has some other thing where he can make— "

"Enough about the baka. Tell me everything about my Sasuke-kun. Spill forehead!" Ino begged with a frenzy in her eyes.

'Did I used to be like this?' Sakura thought. Sure, she was a fangirl in the past, but it didn't occur to her that she could ever have been this obsessed with Sasuke. After spending the past month together on the same team, she still obviously had feelings for the raven haired boy, but he didn't have the same effect on her as he used to.

Sasuke used to be so attractive because he was the mysterious boy that no one knew anything about, but now that she spent almost every day by his side, that mystery was gone.

"Well Sasuke-kun is… I don't really know what to say." Sakura said as they turned a corner and made their way forward down a vacant street towards the Yamanaka compound.

Ino sighed aggressively, "You don't deserve to be on his team." She said as she shook her head violently.

"Whatever Ino pig." Sakura responded.

"G-guys, who is th-that?" Hinata asked as she pointed to a figure making a turn onto the street they were walking on, her face turning slightly red as she noticed whoever it was had their clothes hung over their shoulder.

"I can't tell it's too dark." Ino replied as she squinted trying to make out the target.

"Is that… Naruto?" Sakura asked as the boy slowly made his way into the light of one of the lamps.

"Why is he naked?" Ino added, a blush coloring both her and Sakura's cheeks as they saw their classmate's physique.

'Thud'

Hinata hit the ground, unconscious with a odd looking grin on her face.

"Oh my kami, is she okay." Shouted Naruto as he ran up to them.

Sakura knew of Hinata's crush on Naruto. To be fair, everyone knew about it seeing as the only person dense enough not to draw that conclusion was Naruto himself. Sakura was absolutely confident that there was nothing medically wrong with the Hyuuga so she turned her attention to Naruto.

"She's fine. She's fine. Baka what are you doing here? And why are you naked?" Sakura asked with a frown as she crossed her arms, trying to suppress the blush on her face.

"I'm just getting back from my training!" Naruto exclaimed. "And I'm not naked! I have my boxers on see." Naruto said gesturing to his undergarments.

'Thwack'

Sakura landed her hardest punch on Naruto's left cheek, causing him to take two steps back from the impact.

"I'M A LADY. DON'T MAKE THOSE GESTURES AT ME." Sakura yelled, annoyed at her teammate.

"Sorry Sakura-chan. Oh hey Ino." Naruto apologized, his left cheek already swelling up a bit before addressing the other kunoichi from his graduating class.

"Why are you naked Naruto?" Ino repeated with a scowl on her face that she hoped would prevent anyone from noticing her blush.

"I was training using the stream in our training ground and my clothes got wet so I thought I would leave them out to dry. They never got fully dry so since I didn't want to put on wet clothes, I decided to just carry them, and here we are."

"Ugh. You're an idiot Naruto." Ino said before kneeling down next to Hinata to try to get her to wake up.

Naruto didn't let what she said bring him down. After all, most people he knew were quite harsh to him no matter how nice he was to them. Since he became a genin, he now knew it was because of the Kyuubi in one way or another. The adults knew and treated him poorly, and the kids were told by their parents to stay away from him.

"I'll forgive you for that." Naruto said poignantly to Ino with his very best 'nice guy' voice, "and I'll even help you carry your bags to prove how kind I am."

Sakura then spoke up from her position on the other side of Hinata, "Baka, just get out of here before Hinata wakes up. We wouldn't want her to just pass out again."

"Umm… okay then? I'll see yah tomorrow Sakura-chan. Bye Ino." Naruto said as he continued on his way home.

'Well that was… odd.' Naruto concluded to himself.

o.o.o

(The hokage's office)

'Knock knock knock'

Hiruzen got up from his desk and opened the door to let his visitor in.

"Ahh Kakashi. How did training go with your squad?" The hokage asked his visitor as he closed the door behind him.

"You tell me hokage-sama. I'm not wrong in assuming you were watching the whole time." Kakashi responded, alluding to the crystal ball that rested on the hokage's desk.

"You're not wrong. But since you are their jonin sensei, I want your opinion. Do you think they're ready for the mission I've picked out?" The Sarutobi responded once more asking for Kakashi's opinion.

"I stand by my squad. They handled themselves extraordinarily on our C-rank turned A-rank so I don't doubt that they will be sufficient."

"You do understand that it is as much an escort mission as it is diplomatic. Meaning I am going to have to classify it as a B-rank."

"You don't have to worry hokage-sama. Besides, Naruto is sensei's son. He's going to have to get some sort of diplomatic experience if he ever plans on following his dreams to become hokage. Might as well get it now."

"If you say so Kakashi."

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Chapter 3 Complete

Doubled the chapter length to over six thousand words :)

Please Review, Favorite, Follow, Review again, and feel free to message me.

We got a hundred follows on this story in just 2 chapters with just over 5000 words, which is absolutely amazing.

Sorry this chapter wasn't out sooner but I had midterms, and as you can probably tell, it's twice as long as the first two chapters.

I will do my absolute best to keep the chapters coming consistently and to keep them at this length if not longer or shorter.

In response to some review questions:

bankai777  
No, Naruto won't fight Temari in the chunin exams. As for will he be with Shizuka. I won;t reveal any pairings yet because I don't really know forsure yet. Haven;t explored that possibility though.

Also there will be no yaoi.

DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW. REVIEWS FEED MY SOAL.

Dattebayo.


	4. Chapter 4

Strength of the Sage

Chapter 4

Summary: Sasuke wasn't the only one to uncover a kekkei genkai on team seven's mission to the land of the waves. Seeing his best friend and teammate on the brink of death die pushes Naruto to unlock an ability inherited from his mother that is rarely seen among the Uzumaki.

o.o.o.o.o

Team seven sat in comfortable silence at training ground seven, waiting as they often did for their sensei to arrive.

Ever since the team had formed, their dynamic as a group was slowly changing. Right after graduation Sakura had blatantly despised Naruto, and Sasuke simply couldn't tolerate either one of his teammates, but their opinions of one another were shifting as they spent more time together. This went tenfold for the events of the previous mission to wave country.

Naruto had seen Sasuke, who was a complete bastard to him for as far as he could remember, willing to sacrifice his life for him. Granted, the teme said he wasn't thinking at the time and acted on instinct, but that action alone had forced Naruto to gain a massive amount of respect for his teammate.

Sakura had been something of a mystery to Naruto over the past week. Ever since the attack had taken place on the bridge Naruto expected his kunoichi teammate to be fearful of him, especially since she saw him in his enraged state, but instead the girl was perfectly pleasant. In fact, Sakura had been a lot nicer to him over the past week than ever before. She hit him less frequently. She even had normal conversations with him at times, although those were limited to situations when Sasuke wasn't around.

But progress was progress.

The biggest change though was how Sasuke viewed and talked to Naruto. Of course he still had his pride, and would never stop calling the blonde 'dobe', but there was no longer an undertone of superiority associated with his voice. It was as if Sasuke had finally started seeing Naruto as something more than the useless student he had known in the academy. Naruto was an enigma to Sasuke, as certain things didn't add up when he was told about how Naruto defeated the two missing nin in wave, but that didn't stop him from seeing Naruto in a new light.

Naruto was strong.

Although he tried to hide it, Sakura had caught on to Sasuke's new mindset. If the events on the bridge had happened a month earlier, Sakura would have probably tried making excuses as to why Naruto succeeded where Sasuke could not. Now though, she could tell that her dark haired teammate looked at Naruto with a hint of respect, and she would give credit where credit was due. If not for Naruto, the result of the fight with Zabuza and Haku would have likely not been so good.

Kakashi watched his students from up in a tree. Being a seasoned jounin, he had easily picked up on the small changes in his students' interactions. Even though the escort mission to wave had escalated quickly and put himself and his students in a lot of danger, he was quite happy with the results. Team seven was finally treating each other like a team, and it only took facing multiple life threatening scenarios together to get them to that point. He was just grateful that the three got a good dose of reality without any real lasting consequences.

Often times with young shinobi it would take a mission gone terribly wrong for them to realize just how rough being a shinobi could be, but his team had managed to come through unscathed.

After the last of his students arrived, Kakashi disappeared from his position in the tree with a seamless swirl of leaves and appeared in front his three charges.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto spoke first as he appeared, confusion clearly etching its way onto his face.

"Yo." The man responded with his trademark careless visage, as if it wasn't completely out of the ordinary that he had shown up on time to the team meeting in the morning.

"You're on time Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura said, pointing out the obvious.

"And…?" He responded, feigning ignorance.

"And you're never on time!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah Kakashi-sensei. What gives? First you start training us real techniques when we haven't even had a single training session before our mission to wave, and now you start showing up on time!?" Naruto continued, "It's like you're not even Kakashi!"

Sasuke, although opting to remain silent was also quite baffled by Kakashi's recent actions, not that he would complain. The man had finally started acting like a real sensei.

"Well, if you don't want me to I guess I could go back to — " He tried to respond before being interrupted by his blonde student.

"No way! Now you have to train us. Dattebayo!" Naruto cut him off.

"Then let's get to it." The masked man said with a sigh before making a ram seal and two shadow clones came to life.

There was no time for discussion as the the shadow clones immediately went to split up to where the designated training would take place.

The three students went their separate ways, following their teacher. Sasuke made a tiger seal and used the shunshin no jutsu with some success, managing to accelerate his movement as he followed his copy of Kakashi for fifty feet before he had to release his jutsu.

Naruto just stared in jealousy before turning around and running to catch up to his copy of their sensei who was already sitting against the tree next to the stream with his copy of Icha Icha out.

"Lucky bastard gets a real jutsu." Naruto muttered under his breath as he removed his jumpsuit to keep dry and got ready to manipulate his chakra.

o.o.o

(flashback: 1 days ago)

Kakashi stood in the Hokage's office, patiently waiting for the man's response after recounting the details of team seven's escort mission to wave.

Hiruzen had a thoughtful look on his face as he took the account in. After a brief silence, he asked the question on his mind.

"Kakashi, your students, how exactly are they taking it?"

"Surprisingly well I would have to say. The events seemed to have only brought them closer as a team. I think that a certain amount of trust is now inherent in their dynamic after everything they went through."

"What about young Sakura? You said she saw Naruto while he was channeling a substantial amount of the kyuubi's chakra. Was she not traumatized?" The Hokage queried. Not many genin could claim to have witnessed a bijuu's power and not be changed by the experience.

"Maybe she would have been if she had paid attention to it, but at the time she was more focused on the fact that Sasuke had appeared to be dead." Kakashi replied.

"Well in any case, your team performed admirably, especially given the circumstances of what they were up against. I'm not sure if any of the other rookie teams would have fared nearly as well as they did."

Hiruzen really was impressed with team seven. He always knew he could expect great things from Naruto, and Sasuke too was an up and coming talent in the village, with being the academy's rookie of the year. Even Sakura, who admittedly didn't do too much during the mission, had worked hard to learn and improve whereas many genin in the same situation would have conceded to fate and let events play out knowing they couldn't change much.

Those genin put a lot of work in for the mission to have ended as well as it had, and it truly was admirable.

"Will that be all Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked. He too was exhausted after how everything played out, and there was no hiding that from the knowledgeable eyes of the professor. The previous day after team seven got back, Kakashi had spent the whole day filling out paperwork for the TI unit and making arrangements for Zabuza and Haku. He had not gotten much rest, unlike his students who were relieved of duty as soon as they entered the village.

"No, sorry Kakashi, but I'll need you for just a bit longer." He said, pausing slightly before continuing, "How strong do you think each of your students are? And please elaborate on why you think so." He ventured.

Kakashi shot him a confused glance, wondering where he was going with the line of questioning before he quickly evaluated his team's individual skills.

"Sasuke is probably still the strongest, despite Naruto's new discovery of the adamantine sealing chains. I would say that his speed is actually mid chunin level while his strength is at high genin level. He has a couple fire ninjutsu in his repertoire, but at this point he doesn't exactly know how to use them properly because at long range they're easily dodged and at close range it takes too long for him to go through his hand seals. Without his sharingan he could probably fight evenly with any high genin or even some low chunin level shinobi, but the doujutsu is a game changer. Those eyes can probably give him the ability to hold his ground against a mid level chunin, especially because when awakened he gained two tomoe in each eye, meaning they are already quite matured. As you know the sharingan gives him an advantage in all three of the main shinobi fields, granting the ability to see through most genjutsu, replicate ninjutsu, and predict and counter taijutsu. Unlike me though, he could probably have them activated for an entire fight without feeling too much of a drain because he was born with them." Kakashi started.

"Naruto is also quite impressive, especially in comparison to his academy track record. In terms of speed and strength he is the opposite of Sasuke. His speed is a little lower, at high genin level, but his strength is at what I would estimate to be mid chunin level. While Sasuke has great taijutsu form, Naruto has immense stamina and can take quite a huge beating before you would ever see him slowing down to make up for it, making them close to equal in the art. In terms of ninjutsu he only really has the shadow clones, but the technique suits him quite well. He can overwhelm any genin level shinobi by sending 50 clones their way, and can recover from that drain in minutes. Naruto could probably fight to a standstill with most low chunin level shinobi. The only real reason I would say Sasuke has the edge is because the sharingan is quite straightforward to use whereas Naruto has a ways to go before he can use the chains properly in a fight." He continued, before moving on to his last student.

"Sakura is still largely overshadowed by the two boys, but I don't think that really speaks to her potential as a shinobi. It's just that she hasn't taken any of it seriously until quite recently. Her speed and strength are both low genin level, but she has excellent chakra control as well as a mind that can put most of ours to shame. Unfortunately that all adds up to her being at best, a mid genin level shinobi."

'Two rookie genin that can compete with lower end chunin.' Hiruzen thought to himself. That was something to be proud of, especially since it was clear that Kakashi hadn't done much to help any of his students progress up until about a week and a half ago.

"That's quite an impressive team you have there Kakashi. Tell me then, what do you think about them participating in the chunin exams?" Hiruzen asked the scarecrow, clearly seeing the surprise in his eyes as he did.

"Chunin exams? Already?" He said aloud.

Kakashi really was caught off guard by this, and he took a second to wrap his mind around it. The more he thought about it though, the more it made sense to him. To be honest, if the old Sarutobi didn't bring it up right now, he probably would have come to the same conclusion himself. He once more went over his genin's skills in his mind before he gave the Hokage a confident look.

"Definitely." Kakashi gave his one word answer and held eye contact with the Hokage for a moment to emphasize how sure he was of this.

Thinking over it, team seven probably had the best survivability out of any genin team in Konoha. If they were ever in over their heads, Naruto could create a thousand clones to buy plenty of time for the team to escape. Sasuke, similar to many Uchiha in the past, thrived under pressure. That's simply how the Sharingan worked. High pressure situations meant improvement for people like Sasuke. Sakura had nearly perfect chakra control, and while she couldn't do much in a combat capacity as of yet, she was oriented very well for medical ninjutsu. Kakashi was sure she would take to it like a fish to water.

It would take a minimum of an A-rank threat to team seven for Kakashi to bet against them because of their overall team survivability.

In the absolute worst case scenario, if all hope was truly lost, the team would still have a chance because of the fact that Naruto was a jinchuuriki. When backed into a corner, jinchuuriki were oftentimes known to perform miraculous feats power due to their ability to tap into the bijuu's chakra. Naruto had only recently shown that he too had this ability, and while quite unreliable it was just another card that was hidden up team seven's sleeve.

Hiruzen let out a chuckle as he heard Kakashi's reply. It was good to hear that he had such confidence in his team.

"In that case I'm going to need you to train up your students." Hiruzen ordered, "And none of those pointless team building exercises that you keep forcing onto them. I fear the only positive effect they have is that all three of your students bond over how ridiculous they are." Hiruzen lectured.

If all went according to plan, the chunin exams this year in Konoha would be maybe the biggest in history, and it would do wonders for Konoha if a rookie team was able to provide a strong showing.

Kakashi cringed as the Hokage criticized his 'team building exercises' but nodded all the same.

"Hai hokage-sama."

(flashback end)

o.o.o

Naruto woke with a grin on his face and more excitement in his bones than he had for the past three days combined.

Sure, training was fun, but there's nothing like an exciting mission, and the following paycheck to get a spring in your step. Naruto rolled out of his bed and jumped out of his pajamas, into his orange jumpsuit at an insanely fast pace, ready for what the day would bring.

Kakashi and the old man Hokage had been very enigmatic about the contents of the mission. All that team seven was informed of was that it wasn't a D-rank and that it was a high priority mission for the village.

Naturally Naruto's mind wandered to saving a princess, or freeing an enslaved nation, but he would honestly be happy with anything that didn't involve menial labor.

Within minutes of waking, Naruto was dressed, fed, and out the front door.

o.o.o

Naruto was surprised to find that he was actually the last of team seven to arrive at the hokage's office for the mission briefing.

"Took you long enough." Said Kakashi with a stern look on his face as he tapped his wrist, as if he were checking a wristwatch.

Naruto and nearly face-faulted at hearing this.

"Hah. As if you have any room to talk. I should prank you to kingdom come for just trying to pull something like that." Naruto yelled, raising his voice as he got riled up.

Immediately Kakashi's confident gaze turned into what looked like… fear?

"Okay okay let's settle down Naruto. This is only Kakashi's foolish idea of a joke. No need to retaliate." The Hokage said attempting to placate the situation, although it came off more to the sound of pleading.

Both Kakashi and the old Sarutobi had heard and seen a lot of Naruto's pranks, despite never really being directly on the receiving side of any of them. Kami forbid Naruto would start targeting them now. Elite shinobi or not, Naruto's imagination was a dangerous place, and those pranks knew where and when to hit in order to be the most effective.

The one golden rule among ANBU was not to get on Naruto's bad side, because if a single ANBU would piss him off in some way, the entire division would be on the receiving end of prank retribution.

"Hahah yeah Naruto I was only kidding. How about as an apology I take you out to for some ramen after we get back from the mission. My treat." Kakashi appeased, waving his arms in front of him to give the sense of innocence.

As quick as the tension in the air had appeared, it was gone.

"You've got yourself a deal Kakashi-sensei!"

"Hn." Sasuke stated, a smirk glued to his face. It was pretty funny how people weren't too afraid of Naruto's shinobi abilities, but when it came to pranks he could even get the 'god of shinobi' sweating.

Now that the situation had been resolved, Hiruzen picked up a stack of papers and flipped through them until he got to the page he was looking for.

"Now that you're all here I can give you the mission. Here we go." The old Sarutobi said as he pulled a specific sheet from the middle of the pile.

The three genin all perked up at hearing this. Kakashi of course didn't take his eyes off of his icha-icha pages, but that was excusable since he already knew what the mission entailed.

"This mission I'm giving you is a B-rank diplomatic escort mission." The Hokage started as he pulled another scroll from a locked drawer in his desk.

"W-wait! Hokage-sama. A B-rank mission? But were only a genin squad." Sakura chimed in protest.

Immediately the glares of Sasuke and Naruto found their way to Sakura as if to say "Don't ruin this for me", and the girl got the picture quite quickly.

Hiruzen brushed off the interruption and continued. "As I was saying, this is a B-rank diplomatic escort mission. You'll be escorting your two clients to Mizu no Kuni, and Kakashi will have this scroll" the Hokage stated as he passed the white bound scroll to the jounin, "detailing an offer we have for the Kiri shinobi regiment you will be meeting with."

Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke all nodded at hearing this while Kakashi hid the scroll into his supply pack fastened at his hip.

"You three" The Hokage continued addressing the genin, "don't have to worry about the diplomacy aspect of this mission. Your focus should be on the clients as a priority and Kakashi will deal with the diplomatic interaction. He has been separately briefed on the contents of the scroll and will do all the dealings with the Kiri shinobi. Am I clear?" The Hokage asserted in a voice that left no room for doubt.

"Hai Hokage-sama!" The three genin chorused.

"One question Hokage-sama. Why were we chosen for this mission. It's not like we are any more special than the next genin squad." Sakura asked, this time choosing to ignore the pointed looks she got from her genin teammates.

Just then the doors to the office were pushed open and two pairs of footsteps made their way into the room.

Naruto turned around to see who it was and a look of pure shock appeared on his face.

"That's because I requested you. Miss me brats?" Came the sharklike voice of a man that Naruto had not been eager to hear for the rest of his life.

The Hokage stood up as a courtesy to their guests and introduced them "I believe you have already met the clients, Zabuza Momoichi and Haku Yuki."

The room was silent as three sets of jaws hit the ground.

o.o.o

Kakashi gave team seven an hour to collect their supplies and rendezvous at the front gate of Konoha for their escort mission.

By the time Naruto had arrived, Sakura and Sasuke were already at the front gate waiting with bags strapped onto their backs, each of them already packed and ready for the mission ahead. Kakashi, Haku, and Zabuza were nowhere in sight, although Naruto had arrived fifteen minutes early so it didn't necessarily speak to their tardiness.

Sasuke was the first of the group to speak up.

"So I know that we aren't really allowed to have opinions seeing as we're all genin, but doesn't this seem a little insane to you. Like, Zabuza and Haku were trying to kill us just last week, and now we're supposed to escort them like nothing happened?" Sasuke started, his stoic facial expression disappearing from his face as he explained his confusion.

"Yeah. That just seems wrong." Sakura added, for once not because she was agreeing with Sasuke but because she really thought that it was messed up.

"One day someone is trying to kill you and the next we have to protect them." Sasuke continued.

Naruto scratched the back of his head, trying to sort out the emotions he held for their two clients. Of course at first they were both terrifying. Even after they were both tied up, and after Kakashi had sealed both of their chakra systems, Naruto was wary of them the entire trip back from Nami no kuni.

Naruto had to admit though that as prisoners, neither Zabuza nor Haku tried anything funny, but they were still the enemy and no amount of arguing on their behalf would change that.

"I just hope they don't try to kill us again." Naruto added his two cents. This morning he was hoping for an exciting mission, but now that he knew that even his clients were a danger to him, he was biting his tongue.

"Dobe you scared already?" Sasuke egged Naruto on, trying to get a reaction out of him.

"As if! I'm more scared of Sakura-chan than I am of them." Naruto lied, although it wasn't too much of stretch. Sakura's punches hurt like hell.

Sakura sent a glare Naruto's way but refrained from hitting her blonde teammate. After all, it would be unprofessional if one of the genin was injured before the mission even started.

"You're scared of Sakura? Haha, you're such a loser." Sasuke replied with a smug expression on his face.

"Hey! She punches hard. It's not my fault she refuses to ever hit you. Besides, it's no worse than being scared of your fangirls." Naruto retorted with a maniacal laugh at the end.

He had seen Sasuke's run ins with fangirls, and he had also seen the extreme lengths Sasuke went to in order to avoid the mob of pre-pubescent teens. Naruto freely admitted that those girls were quite scary, but he would never let Sasuke live it down.

Sasuke flinched as Naruto brought up the bane of his existence and seemed genuinely shaken.

"Don't joke about them. They have ears everywhere." Sasuke said ominously, eyeing Sakura and slowly edging away from her in order to make some space for a quick reaction.

Sakura looked at both of them with a deadpan. "I don't know if I should feel insulted or not" She said with her arms crossed and a pout on her face. "It's not like I've ever done anything to seriously hurt either of you."

"LAST TIME I WENT TO THE HOT SPRINGS, YOU CHASED ME AROUND THE VILLAGE WHILE I WAS WEARING NOTHING BUT A TOWEL." Sasuke burst out, not understanding how Sakura didn't comprehend her misdeeds.

Sakura, hearing this, relived it in her memory as her mouth started watering. After a couple moments of that, Sakura snapped out of it and looked towards Sasuke apologetically. "But that was the old me. I would never do that to you now." She tried to console.

"THAT WAS TWO DAYS BEFORE OUR LAST MISSION." Sasuke yelled as he made some more space between her.

Sakura only blushed in reply.

Naruto on the other hand was pulling his hair to the side on the back of his head in order to give his teammate a good view of the cranial damage she caused.

"I have more bruises and bumps on me from you hitting me than from any training or fight I've ever been in! Hell, Sasuke doesn't even hit that hard in our spars!" Naruto added.

"Hey! I hit harder than her." Sasuke angrily said in response to Naruto's declaration.

Sakura only blushed more at the accusations the boys made.

"I'm not that bad am I?" She asked the two.

"Worse!" They both practically shouted in response.

"But I'd still date you Sakura-chan!" Naruto added on quickly with a smile.

"Shove it Naruto." Sakura sat down on the open bench by the gate's entrance, arms still crossed and still pouting.

Naruto stuck his tongue out in her direction, albeit playfully and then took a seat next to Sasuke who was leaning against a tree.

"Girls."

Sasuke almost let out a chuckle. Almost.

"You said it." And he took a seat right next to him.

The three sat in relative silence, thinking about the mission that was coming up.

None of them would admit it, but they all had some level of fear due to the mission. A B-rank was something to be nervous about. The Hokage said they would meet with the leader of a group of shinobi in a war camp, meaning that they would be not too far from a warzone.

The gist of it was that a lot could go wrong in the mission, but despite that, for some reason the Hokage had enough faith in team seven to pull through.

The Hokage believed in them, and Naruto didn't have the heart to let the old man down.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

I'm back after way too long. I have to apologize about how long this took me to come out with. I actually wrote this a long time ago, but I absolutely hated it and I rewrote it twice before completely giving up. I dropped it for a while and picked it back up this week and after rewriting it a few more times I'm finally satisfied with how the chapter went.

Anyways, review if you liked it or didn't like it.

Favorite, follow, the usual.

Dattebayo.

Stats:

 **Naruto**

Ninjutsu: 2  
Taijutsu: 2.5  
Genjutsu: 1  
Intelligence: 1  
Strength: 3.5  
Speed: 2  
Stamina: 4  
Hand Seals: 2.5  
 **Total: 18.5**

 **Sasuke**

Ninjutsu: 2.5  
Taijutsu: 2.5  
Genjutsu: 1.5  
Intelligence: 2  
Strength: 2  
Speed: 3.5  
Stamina: 2  
Hand Seals: 3  
 **Total: 19**

 **Sakura**

Ninjutsu: 1.5  
Taijutsu: 1  
Genjutsu: 3  
Intelligence: 3.5  
Strength: 1  
Speed: 1  
Stamina: 1  
Hand Seals: 3  
 **Total: 15**

Jutsu List:

Shosen no Jutsu: Mystic Palm Technique

A-rank supplementary jutsu  
The user coats their hands with medical ninjutsu chakra and channels it to an injured body part through direct contact. Although it is simple enough to learn, the effectiveness of the technique is null for all but those who have exceptional chakra control and mastery over medical ninjutsu chakra.

Shunshin no Jutsu: Body Flicker Technique

D-rank supplementary jutsu  
The user channels chakra to their entire body, allowing the user to increase the speed, and impulse of the muscles for a short period of time. The technique is often times used for traveling short distances at high speeds. It is not well suited for combat due to tunnel vision while in use and oftentimes resulting in vertigo after use.


End file.
